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To make this essay take up as little space as possible the are no line breaks at all! Titles of sections appear as sentence fragments. To understand this essay you will have to be familiar with a few of the short stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. There a many grammatical and spelling errors, especially after about page 7. That's as far as I got with my revisions. If you do decide to print this, please keep in mind that it will be over 20 pages long.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Isolation - by CJ Welter

Hawthorne’s Biography Nathaniel Hawthorne related his main characters to himself. Hawthorne was a lonely little boy who was raised by his mother. And his isolation tended to bleed into his literature as well. Hawthorne’s stories contained lots of themes involving sin and guilt. There are many themes about loneliness and sadness and his main characters are introverted and tend to lead sheltered lives. This is also a part of Hawthorne’s own shyness. Hawthorne was born in Salem when it was a great seaport. His father was a sailor and died when Hawthorne was only five years old. He was left exclusively in the company of women. Because of this as he grew up to be very independent and solitary. As a young boy of ten Hawthorne shattered his foot in a rugby game. Bed ridden for two years, he became an avid reader. His family then move to Maine for about five years where Hawthorne became a great lover of nature. He then began to research his family history and found that one of his ancestors was a judge at the Salem witch trials. For about 12 years nothing was heard of Hawthorne. He later recalled these years as “the lonely chamber years.” This is thought to be the time when Hawthorne did much of his writing It is assumed that the stories in his book Twice Told Tales were written during this period. The Minister’s Black Veil The short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” is set in colonial Salem during the Puritan times. Hawthorne seems to be imagining what it must have been like during those times. This story contains lots of religion and the characters are victims of their religion, which eventually separates them from their family. The main character, Mr. Hooper, is a Reverend who decides to wear a black veil over his face and refuses to take it off even on his death bed. This character turns out to be a very lonely man. He shares a lot of Hawthorne’s qualities, his most prominent one being loneliness. He dresses neatly and conservatively and though he is a bachelor he has the appearance of having a wife to take care of the slightest detail of his cloths. This neatness was most likely also a quality of Hawthorne’s since during the beginning of his life he was surrounded mostly by women. This veil caused Mr. Hooper great isolation. When he went to the meeting house and greeted the people which were there, they hardly returned his greeting at all. It seemed to be that they were thinking that Mr. Hooper could not see them behind his veil, so what was the point of returning his hello. The veil also came between Mr. Hooper and his religion. “It threw its obscurity between him and the holy page, as he read the scriptures, and while he prayed.” The veil seem to be a curtain between him and God. Isn’t it a sin to cast oneself away from God by placing a curtain, the black veil, between oneself and the holy Lord. In this way the veil caused isolation from religion and God. Perhaps this could have been the great sin that Mr. Hooper most feared. For even on his death bed he refused to remove the veil. Perhaps he was hiding his face from God because he had committed the worst sin of all. He never told anyone why he wore the veil because he thought that he could only share his reasoning with God. When Reverend Hooper read aloud the scriptures to his congregation he read passages which pertained to secret sin and also about things that we hide from our loved ones and also hide from ourselves. Was he somehow trying to relate to his whole congregation why he was wearing he veil? Could he have been telling them that perhaps since they all participated in some kind of secret sin that they should also be wearing their own veil. The townspeople in this story wanted to believe that it was not Mr. Hooper under the veil. They knew him so well but they knew not why he wore the veil. They hoped that a gust of wind would push aside the veil and prove that it was a stranger. The man that wore the veil was to them, a completely different person then the Reverend Hooper that they once knew. To make Mr. Hooper’s isolation worse, Squire Saunders didn’t even invite him to sit at his table. It was assumed that this was just an oversight but as far as the story goes, it was to indicate that Mr. Hopper was truly being isolated from the rest of the people. “The black veil, though it covers only our pastor’s face , throws its influence over his whole person.” Even to the people in this story the black veil was a symbol of Mr. Hooper’s isolation. Though it only covered part of his body symbolically it covered his entire soul. When Mr. Hooper went to the funeral of the young girl, the black veil was seen as appropriate. Then when he wore it to the wedding, it was seen only as evil At the funeral it tended to blend in with the other mourners. But at the wedding it stuck out like a sore thumb. While Mr. Hooper was in the funeral procession it was said that his soul and the soul of the dead girl were “walking hand in hand” At this point it is thought that the black veil represented Mr. Hooper’s destiny, which was his death. Being in this isolation, by wearing his black veil, he was living his own death. Children saw him as a monster and something to be afraid of. This was also how they viewed the black veil at the wedding. It was seen as an evil thing which would bring bad luck to the newly wed couple. At this point in this story Mr. Hooper also sees the black veil as a symbol of evil While raising his glass in a toast he happens to catch a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He ran, afraid of his own image, afraid of something evil. Hawthorne explained Mr. Hooper’s actions by saying, “for the earth, too, had on her black veil.” Was it truly the earth that he was speaking of or mankind? The people in Reverend Hooper’s parish observed that the black veil “seemed to hang down before his heart, the symbol of a fearful secret between him and them.” The black veil seemed to hang in front of the Reverend’s soul. It was hiding a great secret. The secret that he felt he could share with no man not even those that he trusted. Mr. Hooper said himself that everyone wore a veil and that sometime in the future everyone would be able to cast theirs aside. His veil was to be worn “in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes.” Even in a crowd Mr. Hooper experienced solitude and a feeling of isolation from everyone, including himself. He said that the veil must separate him from the entire world, even his Elizabeth. He told her that she could never go behind the veil. For all she wanted to do was to pull aside the curtain and see the Wizard. She continually asked him why he wore it, but he would never really tell her. He would only say that everyone wore some kind of veil, but that his was a solid object. Everyone else wore a veil of deceit. Even Elizabeth believed that Hooper was hiding his face from some kind of secret sin. She told him that if she believed that this was the reason he wore his veil, then everyone else believed the same thing. Even this didn’t persuade him to tell her why he wore the veil. Hooper told her that while they were on earth the veil must always be between them, keeping him in isolation and a darkness between their souls. It was only on earth that he must wear a veil. It would not be for eternity. He believed that he was truly alone behind his veil but that once he left earth he could remove his veil and come out of his isolation. It annoyed Hooper greatly, that immaterial object. The veil, could be the only thing that was between him and his happiness. But it seems that there was another thing between him and his happiness, his death. For that was the only way that he could remove his veil. The veil in a way symbolized his own death, his passage from the mortal life. It was thought that the veil was some kind of “preternatural horror” and that the veil itself was woven with evil. While wearing his veil “love or sympathy could never reach him.” Again he is in complete isolation from love, from sympathy, from the rest of mankind. Not much could reach him from behind his veil, but he seems to be able to reach out to others and help them cast away their own veils. For “they had been with him behind that black veil” and this is how he helped his parish. He helped others feel relief from their sins. But he could never gain relief from his sins and what was hidden behind his veil. He died a kind and loving man though he himself was unloved and feared. Even on his death bed others still feared his black veil and begged him to remove it. But even on his death bed he refused to remove his veil for by now, to him, his veil symbolized eternity, when in fact the veil shaded him from the light of eternity. He said that on earth he would never remove his veil And no one ever did remove his veil. He was buried with it still covering his face. It still covered his sin. As he died he still believed that everyone wore a veil Mr. Hooper could have been insane. But it was not why he wore the veil. It was the veil which drove him to insanity. He drove himself to his own isolation. He chose to wear the veil, he chose to be isolated, he brought on his own cruel death. He wore the veil to hide from the world. He wore it because he thought that his sin was so great the world needed to hide from him. He thought that he would contaminate the rest of humanity. The Birth Mark “The Birth-Mark” was another short story by Hawthorne which was very much similar to the Minister’s Black veil. Aylmer, a man of science, is married to a woman who has a birthmark in the shape of a hand on her cheek. He gives her some kind of potion to remove the mark. The mark slowly fades away and so does the very breath of her own life fade with it. This story seems to have a fairy tale element in it. It also seems to be saying that nothing is perfect and that human nature is flawed. The search for perfection is then completely meaningless especially from a scientific standpoint. Aylmer and Aminadab are complete contrasts to each other. Aylmer himself represents the mad scientist. Aylmer’s love of science competes with the love of his wife. Eventually it’s his love of science that wins and through the death of Georgiana the love of his wife completely disappears. Georgiana’s birthmark was thought to be the hand print of a fairy given to her just before she entered the physical world. It was to herself and to Aylmer “the visible mark of earthly imperfection.” Therefore here on earth the mark must stay since everything in nature has some sort of flaw. The mark would fade in and out as the color in Georgiana’s cheek would change. Aylmer hated and even feared the mark itself. For him to even look at it, would cause him to shudder. The mark overwhelmingly destroyed Georgiana’s beauty. How could nature have created such a distinct flaw? With every change of Georgiana’s emotions the “Crimson Hand” would fade in and out. This tied it in to her emotions and essentially her heart. The hand was gripped firmly around her heart, as though it were part of her soul. The same soul that would eventually pass with her into the next life. For Aylmer the hand was a symbol of all of Georgiana’s imperfections, not just her physical flaw. It symbolized her sins, her sorrows, her decay, and ultimately her death. Her husband even believed that the hand would lead her to her death. Georgiana also believed that the hand would lead her to her death. She reminded Aylmer that it was clutched around her heart. She knew that even if this was so, he would still try to remove it, and she begged him to do so. The stain on her cheek went “as deep as life itself.” And to remove this stain, this tiny imperfection, would be to remove life. Aylmer was convinced that he could manipulate nature. He tried to manipulate life itself. Convinced that he could correct the mistakes that nature had made he strove to remove the hand. How stupid of him not to see that all of his previous experiments had been a failure. Experiments where he had attempted to do the exact same thing, which was for science to correct the mistakes of nature. Aminadab “seemed to represent man’s physical nature.” He was the complete opposite of Aylmer who symbolized the scientific side of man. Aminadab said that he would never tamper with the birthmark. He saw it as a perfectly natural thing, and being a man of nature he would never do such a thing. Aylmer attempted to save Georgiana from evil by removing the birthmark. But, isn’t it natural for all men to have deep within them at least a touch of evil. For with out our evil side there would not be much to us at all. How could we bring ourselves to kill so that we could eat for our survival? Even a vegetarian must survive through the death of another even though that other is a plant. We all need at least just a touch of evil, for without it, it would surely bring our death. And removing the evil from Georgiana we also remove her life. It was Georgiana who was truly isolated in this story. It was the hand that brought her to her seclusion. For no one dare touch the hand. Her friends feared it and so did her husband. Such a small scuff threw her into a sort of mental isolation, where even she feared the hand, for it scared away everyone. When Aylmer took a picture of Georgiana the image was “blurred and indefinable.” The camera saw Georgiana the same way that everyone else saw her. It was the way that she also saw herself. The only one that didn’t see her this way was Aminadab, the man of nature, and in this story, the voice of reason. The “Elixir of Immortality” that Aylmer gave to Georgiana ultimately caused her death, but in a way did give her immortality. It created her perfection by removing her only flaw which was the Crimson Hand. It also passed her into the next realm where perfection was allowed, for earth had no such perfection. Georgiana was immortal for she could no longer be of this mortal earth. For Aylmer, the hand was not just a blemish on the cheek. It was a blemish on her soul. And to remove it he would have to use something much stronger than his regular elixirs. He needed something that would penetrate very deeply. He could not just rub something on the mark. She must drink her remedy to cleans her whole self. Georgiana hated the birthmark and wished nothing more than to have it removed. She had said herself that even if death was the price to pay she would still want it removed. Was she also caught up in the fantasy of what Aylmer had believed? This is truly part of the fairy tale element of this story. There was a book that had documented all of Aylmer’s experiments. Each and every one was a failure. What made anyone believe that this one time would be an exception? For this book was a symbol of Aylmer’s wasted life. He was completely hopeless and imperfect, yet we don’t see him giving up science to take on another occupation. He is caught up with his own imperfection just as much as the imperfection of Georgiana. She looked forward to her death for it would be the end of her seclusion. It was not just the seclusion that she felt while she was locked away all alone in Aylmer’s lab, but also her isolation from the rest of society. When she went into Aylmer’s lab he accused her of casting a terrible curse over his work. His labors already seemed to be cursed since not one had ever been a success. The birthmark had little to do with Aylmer’s failure it was his preoccupation with removing it that made him cast aside the thoughts of anything else. How imperfect it was, he was obsessed with it. When the time finally came and the birthmark was removed, Georgiana was truly perfect. But she knew that it could be for no longer than a moment. Perhaps Aylmer also knew this but just didn’t care. He was so obsessed with perfection, he wanted to see it no matter what the cost. He had never seen perfection in his work, in his life, or even in his wife. “Unless all my science have deceived me, it cannot fail.” Aylmer was deceived, but not by science. He was deceived by his obsession. His science was never wrong, it was always Aylmer himself that was wrong. Why would he ever think that this one time, when it was the most import, he would turn out to be correct? Aylmer “rejected the best that earth could offer.” He rejected his wife for her one imperfection. He rejected his failures because of his blind obsession of perfection. He threw himself into seclusion just as Georgiana had been thrown into seclusion by everyone. And in the end he was the one who was left alone with no one there to love him and believe in him, even though he was always wrong. Comparing The Birthmark to The Black Veil The hand and the black veil were very similar. Both were physical objects which were not easy to ignore. They both separated their wearer from the rest of the world. They were feared and hated objects. However, Hooper chose to wear his veil, and Georgiana was born with her Crimson Hand. Both characters were in isolation. Not just physical isolation, but emotional, and mental isolation. While Georgiana strove to remove her symbol, Hooper refused to remove his. Both assumed that their symbols would be removed when they died. Perhaps, Hooper’s veil was his imperfection. It did represent his sin, whatever that was. Aylmer and Hooper were similar as well. They both forced their isolation on themselves. They were both convinced that mortality was imperfect and punished themselves because of it. As for differences, it was the setting of the stories that were completely different. Hooper was in a small isolated New England town, probably somewhere around Salem. Aylmer was always locking himself in his lab and refused to let anyone intrude into his territory, even his wife. It was kind of like Grandma in the kitchen cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Don’t dare set foot on her territory or suffer a fate worse than the turkey. “The Black Veil” was about religion and “The Birth-Mark” was about science. Though in both stories the main characters seemed to be fighting against nature. Aylmer only saw the imperfection in his wife, he never saw the imperfection in himself. Hooper saw imperfection in everyone, but only corrected his own. Hooper was convinced that everyone wore a veil. I guess this would be kind of like the proverbial masks that everyone supposedly wears. The Ambitious Guest “The Ambitious Guest” was one of Hawthorne’s earlier works. It is the story of a small family who lives in the mountains. One night a stranger comes to visit them and get them all taking about what their dreams are. the mountain suddenly avalanches and in an attempt to escape they are all killed. But, the cottage which they were in originally escapes unharmed. This story was about fate and about man’s connection with nature. It was a connection so tight and secure that when severed it most assuredly brought on nothing other than death. All of the characters in the story go unnamed and rightfully so since they died a meaningless death anyway. The traveler in the story remains nameless because the world would never know that he had even lived. his goal was to wander around the world and to actually be somebody. As fate would have it he died and never got to achieve his goal. A great example of pathetic fallacy in this story would be the living mountain. The mountain took on a whole life of its own. It spoke to the people who lived in the cottage and it kept them safe. it sort of had a bond with the people who lived there. In the end the mountain kept its bond with the people by warning them about the oncoming avalanche and saving the cottage. However, the people did not keep their bond with the mountain and all where killed. No one ever knew about the traveler, but he did get his monument. His tomb was his monument, for a gigantic pile of rock from the slide was all that remained of him. Here the reader is given inside information. The reader is the only one left who ever knew of the traveler. With this the traveler is given the immortalization that he had always hoped for. The theme of isolation begins with where the family lived in the mountains. “They dwelt in a cold spot and a dangerous one.” It was far away from the rest of civilization and they family seemed to like it that way. The stagecoach stopped there, for it was an oasis in the midst of the lonely mountains. It was a refuge for passersby. And this is how the traveler came to greet them. And in the solitude of the family they took on a friend other than man. They took on a friendship with the mountain. They talked to nature frequently and kept a solid bond between them. they felt that the mountain would protect them as they were in harmony with the mountain. The traveler himself was a lonely man for he wandered to and from door to door without a single companion. He was headed to Burlington, but not to the house of a friend. To his own destiny, this is where his loneliness would ultimately lead him. For he had no friend of man or of nature, and he brought down a terrible plight on himself and on the innocent family which he encountered. His fate was linked with theirs and that is what brought him to this small mountain cottage. For he not only shared with him his dreams of what he had hoped to come, he also shared in what ultimately did come. A fate so horrible that even though in life he was always alone in his death he surely would not be. The family drifted off with the traveler in a dreamy state. All the talk of their dreams made them forget about what was all around them. The forgot about the mountain. It gave a few rumbles here and there, but they just weren’t paying attention. They lost their connection with what protected them. The traveler, traveled alone. He had no friends on his journey. He wouldn’t let anyone join him. He had intended to make a name for himself with absolutely no help from others. He even seemed to be bragging when he told the family about his dreams. And, not once did he ever invite them to join him. He insisted that he could not die “till I have achieved my destiny.” He seems to have worded himself into a corner here. For, his death turned out to be his destiny. He had set out on his journey to achieve his destiny and he did just that. However, it was not the destiny that he had planned for himself. It was the destiny that nature had planned for him. During their conversation, the family mentioned how comfortable is was to live in such a pleasant isolated nook in the mountain. They had said that nobody think about them way out there in the wilderness. This is the point where they loose their connection with the mountain. For, before this they had referred to the mountain as a person who looks over them. Now they are saying that nobody thinks about them. Retaliation from the mountain is now almost expected. If the mountain truly did have feelings they would undoubtedly be hurt by this remark. The mountain is now the one who is being isolated. Later on when the girl is talking about her dreams, she pauses and when asked why she replies, “I felt lonesome just then.” The connection with nature and the mountain has now been completely severed to the point where the girl actually feels lonely. It is isolation of the heart. Even the mountain has a heart. It was referred to as such in the story. However, a sense of love replaces this loneliness. It is said that this love “might blossom in Paradise.” Here Hawthorne again states that earth is definitely not paradise. To be truly happy and content, we must cross into the life. Now, we know that everybody’s going to die at the end of the story. Another great example of Hawthorne foreshadowing the life out of his own story. Then he does it again. The traveler talks of how sailors must feel when their ship has wrecked and they are destined to share their graves. Then the travel says that the ocean being as large and barren as it is, leaves the sailors with no monument of their lives. He dreams of a large monument to his own life and pities those who do not receive this. Then the slide suddenly hits. The family abandons everything that they had once believed in and flees their cottage. They flee directly into the path of the slide and are instantly killed. If they had stayed in their cottage and believed if the promises that the mountain had made to them they would have survived. Alas, this stranger brought to them a fate which severed their connection with the thing that they held most dear. They family had their monument and everlasting impact. Hawthorne tells us that their story is spread far and wide and turned into a legend of the mountains. “Poets have sung their fate.” What a story to tell, of the family who ran directly into the path of destruction. The traveler, however, was not known to anyone. In fact no one actually believe that the family had welcomed a visitor that night. No one knew that he had perished along with them. He had dreamed of “Earthly Immortality” and in the process was given immortality. For, the reader of the story knows of the traveler, and he is immortalized in this story by Hawthorne forever. Comparing The Guest to The black veil The traveler is much like Hooper. Both spend their lives in isolation brought on by their own hand. In a way you could say that the traveler wandered around wearing his own veil. He always thought that he would become something but he never did. He refused to shared his life with anyone. He had no friends on his journey, much like how Hooper would never share his sin with anyone. They where different in a couple of ways too. Hooper lost his connection with the people around him after he committed his sin. The sin of the family in the other story was loosing touch with nature. Their situations where completely different. comparing the guest to the birth mark Both stories are extremely foreshadowed about the deaths of the main characters. Again and again, Hawthorne hints at what the outcome will be. Georgiana continually said that death would be better than living with the birthmark. Time and time again he suggested that the mountain would retaliate for its severed connection with the family. Also, the end of the stories had the same moral, so to speak. They stated that there was no such thing as immortality or perfection on earth. For Georgiana to be perfect she had to die leaving Aylmer alone. For the traveler to make a name for himself, he also had to die. He is then immortalized by Hawthorne’s story, for only the reader knew that he ever existed. Both characters got exactly what they wanted, but they had to pay the price. it kind of goes with the theory “be careful what you wish for.” They should have just been happy with what life had given them to begin with. Now they probably search for perfection in the next world as well. Ethan Brand Ethan Brand is the story of a simple lime burner who returns from a 20 year journey announcing that he has found the Unpardonable Sin. He never actually tells anyone what it is. Then he commits suicide realizing that all he ever did was waste his life anyway. Of course, no one actually cared at that point. We start off with a lime burner sitting alone with his son on a lonely hill, watching the fire. Yawn, I’m bored already. The hillside is lonely and solitary, and quiet. The typical setting for another of Hawthorne’s stories. This is “the scene of Ethan Brand’s solitary and meditative life.” This hillside has been the sight of many a lonely lime burner. But one in particular is remembered, Ethan Brand. A man who live a life of seclusion and isolation on that very same hilltop. Thoughts of talking with Ethan Brand drift into the head of the lonely lime burner. He was thought of as a very solitary man. Then Ethan brand appears, what a coincidence. It was one of those, “woah, I was just thinking of you and here you are,” moments. The limeburner was almost afraid to look into the man’s face. Perhaps, he dreaded the fact that it actually was Ethan Brand, and didn’t want to be told that he had participated in the unpardonable sin. Or maybe he just didn’t want to look sin in the face. The limeburner might possibly look into purchasing a piece of black cloth to wear as a veil. Ethan Brand said that the unpardonable sin was in his own heart. He never told anyone what that sin was. You would think that he would try to be helpful and tell everyone what it was. Saving the souls of others, wouldn’t be such a bad life. At least then it would be worth something. It was said that Ethan’s sin was “the one only crime which Heaven could afford no mercy.” Okay, so who exactly told him this? He had traveled all over the place to discover this sin. So, how exactly did he discover it? This is where the rest of the book which this story was written for would come in handy. There where suspicions that Ethan had conversed with the devil by the side of his kiln. Was it the devil who told him what his sin was? If so, why such a long journey if the answer was right inside of his own lime kiln. Rumors said that Ethan had released demons from his very kiln. So, where the fires of the lime really the fires of hell? No wonder everyone in the lime burning town was so full of sin. The had stoked the very fires of hell! They called the lime kiln “the hollow prison-house of fire.” Isn’t this a description that a priest might use for hell? The kiln was hell, and demons emerged at night to converse with the limeburners. Even the devil had emerged to talk with Ethan. When we finally meet the townspeople, we are introduced to three in particular. The first, seems to have “the same cigar which he had lighted twenty years before.” He hasn’t changed much at all, especially if he still has the same cigar in his mouth. The second has lost a few fingers, but claims that he can still feel them there. But he had survived and “fought a stern battle against want and hostile circumstances.” This man seems to be the only one who had done anything with his life. He had gone out into the world, had a little fun, lost a couple of fingers, but never really lost his spirit. The third, was a very unsuccessful doctor. He had sent quite a few patients to their grave many years too early. He was described to be “as miserable as a lost soul” who wandered the mountains attempting to heel the sick. He also had “an everlasting pipe” which burned with the fire of hell no doubt. There is then the mention of Ester. Apparently a main character in other supposed chapters of this book. Ethan was to have done some kind of psychological experiment with her which ripped her soul apart. Is this how he discovered the unpardonable sin? Along comes the Jew, a very significant character, who seems to know all about what Ethan had set out to discover. He has a little magic box which seems to show everyone who looks into it their destiny. When Ethan Brand looks into the box he only sees “a vacant space of canvas.” Was this foreshadowing his death, or reminding him of his empty and wasted past? The Jew claims that the box indeed shows the Unpardonable Sin. At least for Ethan this turned out to be true. An easily over looked detail was the dog who chose to run around chasing his tail. Another example of a wasted life, he chases his tail in vein. For, it is much to short for him to ever catch. When it is just back to the three original characters on the hillside, Ethan offers to watch the kiln, alone. Even now the young boy realizes the loneliness that Ethan has brought upon himself. As he returns to the hut with his father he begins to cry. Was it only from his sorrow of Ethan, or has the boy realized that his life is also destined to be just as lonely. Alone Ethan decides to throw himself into the fires of the burning lime. He yells “Embrace me, as I do thee!” just before jumping into the burning lime. He is kind of jumping into hell. For he had embraced the unpardonable sin throughout his entire life. Now he is asking heel and the devil to embrace him in his death. When the limeburner awakes and finds that Ethan has left his fire unattended, he curses that he shall throw him into the furnace himself. How ironic since that is exactly where he finds Ethan’s burnt ashes. The heart of Ethan Brand seems to remain intact as though it where made of marble and untouched by the flame. It’s saying that Though his mortal frame was “crumbled to fragments” his soul remained pure. Some how his soul escaped from hell. This would explain why that morning the heaven opened up “as if a mortal man might thus ascend into the heavenly regions.” Though he had committed his sin the whole of his life. Accepting it fir what is was sent him to heaven though he had tried to cast himself into the fires of hell. comparing Ethan brand to the black veil Ethan and Hooper never revealed their sins to anyone. They remain alone their whole lives. When Hooper realized that he had sinned he chose to hide behind a veil. When Ethan realized it, he decided to also accept it. He wrapped himself in his on evil and killed himself to break free. Unlike Ethan, Hooper spent the rest of his life helping others to realize their sins and seek forgiveness. Ethan thought that his sin was unforgivable. He didn’t seek repentance, he didn’t even try. comparing Ethan brand to the birth mark “Ethan Brand” and “The Birth-Mark” where very different stories. Ethan was obsessed with his wasted life while Aylmer was obsessed with perfection. Though both men truly did waste their lives away on something fruitless. Aylmer didn’t throw himself into the fire because of it. Aylmer spent his life reviling in science, while Ethan spent his life obsessed with sin. Here’s where it gets really wild. Aylmer never accomplished anything, all of his experiments where failures. Ethan actually found out what the unpardonable sin was, he accomplished his goal. comparing Ethan brand to the guest The traveler from “The Ambitious Guest” wandered around much like Ethan Brand did for about twenty years. Both men where looking for something, and in a way both found what they where looking for. Ethan found his sin and the traveler got his immortalization. Both ended up dying, but they each had a different effect on the people around them. The traveler made the family think about all the things that they had wished to accomplish. However, when they died the never got to accomplish these things. Ethan returned to his home to discover that nothing had changed. No one there had accomplished anything either. Everyone just lived in their own little worlds of isolation and did absolutely nothing. Young Goodman Brown “Young Goodman Brown” is the story of a young man who goes for a walk in the forest with the devil. He then discovers that everyone that he thought was a pure soul was really a sinner. He then lives out the rest of his life very suspicious of everyone. He dies a bitter old man and nobody really cares. His wife Faith begs him not to go on his journey into the woods. She knows what will happen to him while he is there. She had already met the devil and does not want him to share in the same fate. To Brown, Faith is “a blessed angel on earth.” But, she is only so symbolically. When he talks of returning to his Faith. He doesn’t really mean his wife, he means his religion. She had always been a part of his beliefs but after his walk in the woods his point of views alters dramatically. The isolation begins with Brown’s walk in the forest. “It was all as lonely as could be,” and this is only the beginning of Brown’s solitude. For, from this lonely trek he starts a patter which continues on for the rest of his miserable life. He meets up with the devil and is informed about his evil ancestors who where in league with the dark man. His father and his grandfather. Here Hawthorne relates Brown to himself since one of Hawthorne’s ancestors was a judge at the Salem witch trials. Perhaps it was Hawthorne’s guilt about his relative which led him to write this story. The woods in the story symbolized the loneliness of Brown as well as his internal evil. Is was the realization of how evil everyone was which cast Brown into his own voluntary solitude. He saw everyone in the town as a threat and chose to become a miserable old man. Brown also believed that there was “no good on earth.” Suggesting, as with several other stories of Hawthorne’s, that goodness only comes with death. This theme was also in “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “The Birth Mark.” When Brown’s dream was over he was left “amid calm night and solitude.” The gathering of all the evil character where his only companions on his journey into evil. And when they disappeared in the morning he was left alone. He had felt that even his Faith had betrayed him. Not just Faith his wife but his faith in God and kindness. When Brown died at the end of the story it said that “his dying hour was gloom.” He was yet again left alone without even his Faith. He lived his life entirely in isolation after his walk in the woods with the devil. On his death bed he was also alone. comparing young Goodman Brown to the black veil Brown and Hooper both saw the evil in everyone around them. Hooper hid behind his veil to get away from it and helped others to discover their sin. Brown just isolated himself from everyone and made himself miserable. They both lost the love of their women because of their experiences. Yet they stood by them on their death bed. Maybe Hooper had an experience just the way Brown had. They both ended up being very critical of other people. Brown said everyone was a secret sinner. And Hooper said that everyone wore a veil of their own, no doubt to cover up their secret sins as well. But Hooper and Brown turned out to be different men on the inside. Brown became a miserable old miser and at the time of his death people still didn’t want to be around him. Hooper on the other hand, later became a very respected individual. They even granted him his one wish of never removing his veil. They buried him with it still covering his face and still hiding his sin. comparing brown to the birth mark There isn’t much similarity in these stories other than the isolation of Aylmer and Brown. But these two men were obsessed with the faults of others which then intern left them in isolation of the people which they hastently passed judgment on. But, they each burned their own hell fires. Brown saw himself as being in league with the devil the night he took his journey. Aylmer stoked the fires of his personal hell in his laboratory. comparing brown to the guest It was a journey that these characters both went on. However, the travelers journey revealed his fate. Browns journey revealed the truth but he selected his own fate. Brown, because of a dream that he had cast off all of society. The family in the mountains died because they had cast off their greatest friend: the mountain. comparing brown to Ethan brand Ethan and Brown where very similar. When they both died nobody really seemed to care. Both characters were have said to actually spoken with the devil. Brown on a solitary road, and Ethan at the fireside of his kiln. They both wasted their lives in one way or another. Ethan spent his life searching for something that he already had done. Brown spent his life looking over his shoulder all the time. But Ethan was different, he realized his fault and cast himself into hell for it by throwing himself to the flames. brown just sat around and hoped that everyone else would be cast into hell for being in league with the devil. Rappaccini’s Daughter “Rappaccini’s Daughter” is the story which has the most isolation in it of Hawthorne’s stories which I analyzed. All of the character seem to be in their own personal isolation, including the fictitious author which Hawthorne makes reference to in the beginning of the story. It is the story of a girl who’s father somehow causes her to be as poisonous as the flowers which where in his garden. In an attempt to find her a boyfriend and make him poisonous too. Giovanni gives her a potion to make her normal but all that it does is kill her. At the very beginning of the story we are told that it was written by a French author named M. de l’Aubepine. Who is very similar to Hawthorne himself. His works are little know, much like Hawthorne’s at the beginning of his career as a writer. And his life is described as “the faintest possible counterfeit of real life.” The other works of this fictitious writer are in fact just French translations of Hawthorne’s other stories and books. Perhaps Hawthorne made up this fictitious author for this story because it was set in Italy in stead of New England. Then the real story begins. Giovanni finds himself secluded in an unfamiliar place, a new apartment. The whole apartment house has a very spooky quality to it like it was vacant, yet in reality there where people living there. The is a reference to Dante, foreshadowing Giovanni’s decent into his own personal Inferno. Next to the apartment house is a very beautiful garden. From his window Giovanni can see into it without obstruction. A solitary fountain is in the center of the garden. This fountain is isolated in the way that it is the only thing in the garden that is actually what it appears. Throughout the story it represents Giovanni himself and his unfortunate isolation. When Rappaccini walked through his perfect garden he had to protect himself from it’s deadly poison. He was isolated from his life’s work. He couldn’t touch it, not even his beautiful daughter. Ultimately, his experiments could very well be the death of him. Giovanni saw this garden , at first, to be “the Eden of the present world.” And Rappaccini was to be the Adam. But if Rappaccini was Adam he was a very lonely Adam for he didn’t have and Eve. More likely through his experiments Rappaccini was trying to be God in this garden. Beatrice was seen as the sister of all the poisonous plants. The plants where her friends. Because of her poisonous nature she was isolated from the outside world. Her poison was he “breath of life.” And her very breath brought on the death of others. Baglioni said that Rappaccini cared “infinitely more for science than for mankind.” But Baglioni was also a scientist who through good intentions ended up killing Beatrice. Baglioni accused Rappaccini of creating poisons deadlier than nature could ever produce. but it was his flask of potion which brought about death. Giovanni saw the garden as a solitude because he felt that Beatrice was trapped in it. She was of course, because of her deadly nature. Yet, Giovanni wanted to enter into her solitude. He found the secret entrance to the garden and returned the to meet Beatrice day after day. Giovanni called Rappaccini’s experiments “the adultery of various vegetable species.” A Puritan sin creeps into Italy! The plants where “the monstrous offspring of man” and so was Beatrice. It was as if she where a singular soul on a lonely island with nothing to comfort her but plants. With Beatrice’s obsession of Giovanni she looses touch with her plant like sisters. She seems to think that she can become part of the rest of the world. She decides that the potion which is meant to save lives will be her savior. In an attempt to loose touch with her poisonous friends it brings upon her, her death. The is a physical barrier which separates Beatrice from the world. She is a deadly poison which cannot live among them. This same barrier existed between her and Giovanni, and when that barrier was destroyed so was she. Her poison, her evil, was the element of her life. It was her imperfection. Her attempt o be with out it was what brought on her death. As Hawthorne said in previous stories, evil is our only friend on earth. Beatrice’s only friends where the poisonous plants that shared the garden with her. Giovanni was “imbued with a venomous feeling out of his heart.” Was this his love of Beatrice and her poison? Was this his own poison which was now wrapped around his heart? Was it the oncoming of his isolation? Though Beatrice was deadly her self her spirit was a creature of God. This is saying that man is the only one capable of creating evil. Beatrice begs Giovanni to kill her so that her evil will be destroyed. She years do dissolve her isolation and become one with the earth as God had intended but earthly perfection is impossible. Giovanni believed that the potion would “purify from evil” both he and Beatrice. It did purify Beatrice from evil. By her death she left the evil of earth and continued to the Paradise of the next life. “As poison had been life, so the powerful antidote was death.” But it had rid her of the evil which she hated most, her solitude. comparing the daughter to the black veil There really isn’t a lot of similarity between “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and “The Minister’s Black Veil.” They are set in two different places and one is about sin while the other doesn’t even come close. The only thing that is similar is the physical barrier which made Hooper and Beatrice different from everyone else. Hooper had the black veil between himself and humanity. Beatrice had the walls of the garden to keep her isolated. comparing the daughter to the birthmark Beatrice and Georgiana were practically the same person. They where women who where killed by the science of their men. Georgiana believed in the experiments of her husband even though they where all failures. Beatrice believed in the experiments of her father even though all that he did was create deadly poisons. comparing the daughter to the guest Giovanni and the traveler had much in common. Giovanni was in a new city away from his family and friends trying to make a living for himself. The traveler was also away from his family and friends trying to make a name for himself. comparing the daughter to Ethan brand Ethan Brand, Rappaccini and Beatrice all accomplished nothing with their lives. They where lost souls. Ethan went on a journey but committed suicide because of what he found. Beatrice never got to leave the garden. She never had any of the experiences which make life so wonderful. Rappaccini lost his greatest achievement, his daughter, be cause he tried to love her too much. If he had not enticed Giovanni to love her, she never would have taken the deadly antidote. comparing the daughter to Brown Surround by evil, Brown and Beatrice didn’t stand a chance. Brown was surrounded by his suspicions of the townspeople. People which he had always thought to be just like himself turned out to be sinners and devil worshipers. Beatrice was surrounded by her deadly garden, but it was the only happiness that she ever knew. the difference of this story “Rappaccini’s Daughter” is the only story of Hawthorne’s that I read that didn’t take place in New England. It took place somewhere in Italy. Perhaps, this location was chosen because of the mysterious garden. I found it to be the best of Hawthorne’s stories, maybe because of the fact that is it wasn’t the same thing over again. The Maypole Of Merry Mount This is a story of a young couple who are citizens of Merry Mount. They plan on getting married during one of the town celebrations, but their party is crashed by the Puritans. They are then arrested and killed. Merry Mount is a secluded little village which is terrorized by evil. They are committing the earthly sins. Cleansing their souls requires death. Or, was death the only escape from their misplaced persecution by the Puritans It is the happy citizens of Merry Mount who are the supposed sinners in this story. In reality, or at least in Hawthorne’s reality, it is the Puritans who are the sinners. Persecuting the citizens with their religious they invoke a sentence of death on people who have committed no wrong. At the celebration the citizens are dressed in all sorts of costumes. There are bears and wolves and all sorts of animals. They people tend to take on the characteristics of the masks that they wear. To the Puritans these are the mask of demons, devils and ruined souls. The priest is also dressed in an appropriate costume. “He seemed to be the wildest monster there.” In can be saying that he had the best costume but symbolically it’s not. He was the worst of the sinners, committing blasphemy by attempting to wed the young couple. More of Hawthorne’s foreshadowing is seen here. When the young girl implies that the wreath of flowers at their wedding will hang above their grave, it seems that their fate is sealed. “The moment that they truly loved they had subjected themselves to earth’s doom.” Now death is their only escape from this earthly hell. The maypole itself was referred to as an alter is the story. Was this to mean that the citizens of Merry Mount thought of their celebration and happiness as their religion. Or was it a symbol of their satanic cult that the Puritans believed it to be. Perhaps it was Hawthorne was of showing the differences between the two groups of worshipers. The Puritans had their own maypole: the whipping post. And Merry Mount’s maypole now takes on the meaning of sin. An after the actual maypole is chopped down Endicott thought of re-erecting it to use it as a whipping post. This story tends to show both sides of the situation and it clearly places blame on the Puritans. It, of course, was based on what actually happened to Thomas Morton and again is another example of Hawthorne discrediting Puritan beliefs. They two young people are an example of linked destinies. Through the whole story they are together. They end up even going to their grave together. But, none where to be happier, they are the ones who do not suffer from the dreaded isolation of Hawthorne’s fiction. At the end of the story it is clear that the couple “went heavenward.” They had been exhausted out of their earthly hell. Here dead yet again does not serve as a punishment but as a reward. Here it seems that the Puritans are the ones who are isolated. They just go around killing people who aren’t exactly like them. They turn Merry Mount into another aspect of their own personal hell. comparing the Maypole to the black veil The black veil and the maypole where both physical representations of separation. The Puritans and the citizens where separated by their different views of the maypole. Some saw it as an alter and some as a whipping post. The black veil separated Hooper from the rest of the town. They saw it as a symbol of evil at the wedding and Hooper saw it as a punishment for his sin. In a way the black veil was kind of like Hooper’s own personal whipping post. comparing the Maypole to the birthmark The Puritans where trying to perfect earth much like Aylmer was tying to perfect Giorgiana. They both killed while trying to rid something or someone of evil. However, they are much more different than they are the same. “The Birth-Mark” deals with the evils of science and imperfection. The Puritans were driven by religion and beliefs. Ultimately, neither turns out to be correct since both Georgiana and the young couple went on to heaven after their deaths. comparing the Maypole to the guest A whole group dies together and are no longer alone on earth. The citizen of Merry Mount died because of their beliefs. The family was taken by the slide because the stopped believing in their connect to nature. comparing the Maypole to Ethan Brand The Puritans are wasting their lives away just as Ethan Brand did. They went around searching and destroying things that they didn’t believe in. Ethan searched for a sin much like the Puritans searched for sin. However, Ethan saw the error in his ways. The Puritans never caught onto the fact that they were doing for damage than good. comparing the Maypole to Brown Everybody was a sinner in one way or another. Brown believed this and so did the Puritans. Though they had they outward appearance of normal people, everyone was deem a sinner. Both Brown and the Puritans lived in fear. A fear of difference was what brought all of them to be such evil people. comparing the Maypole to the daughter The citizens of Merry Mount and Beatrice were happy in their own little secluded worlds. Then some one showed up, said you’re evil and this must be corrected. Unfortunately, this meant that they had to die. Hawthorne continually showed that true happiness could not exist in the mortal world. A comment or two about The Scarlet Letter I had read The Scarlet Letter in the past, but didn’t take much time to review it for this comparison. I won’t be going in depth at all. It was very similar to the rest of Hawthorne’s stories that I’ve already gone over. Hester Prin is a married woman who has the baby of the minister of the town, which of course is in New England. She is forced to wear a scarlet A on her chest as a symbol of her sin: Adultery. The minister never admits that he is the father and Hester never gives him away either. She raises her child and becomes respected once again by the very people who persecuted her. This story is very much like “The Minister’s Black Veil.” A sin is committed. A physical representation of the sin is worn by the sinner. The minister in the story forever feels guilty and goes to his grave never telling anyone of his sin. Both Hester and Hooper become well respected members of the community. The difference is that we never really learn what Hooper’s sin was. He stays hidden behind his veil. Hester wears a symbol to remind everyone of exactly what her sin was. Was Hester’s A finally removed when she passed into the next life like Hooper thought about his veil. The other very noticeable difference is the length of The Scarlet Letter, which is the reason why I haven’t gone into depth about it. Hawthorne / The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Irving’s Icabad Crane from “The Legend of Sleepy Hallow” exhibited many of the characteristics of Hawthorne’s many lead characters. He was a lonely solitary man, and a typical stereotype. His beliefs about superstition lead him to completely disappear. Of course, Hooper also disappeared behind his veil never to be seen again. And, his seclusion just might have been conceived from superstition. Hawthorne / Edgar Allen Poe Hawthorne and Poe seemed to lead the same kind of isolated life. However, Hawthorene, who was raised by women, chose his own seclusion. Poe also chose this for himself, but not in exactly the same way. Poe seemed to drive others away by his madness. Hawthorne chose to run away and shelter him self from the world. Hawthorne / The Red Death Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” and Hawthorne’s “The Ambitious Guest” have nearly the exact same theme. The main characters are trying to run away from their destiny and in doing so cause a lot of innocent people to share their fate. The mountain and the red death are both immortal characters brought to life by the authors. Just as the family runs away from the slide they run directly into the path of danger. When Prosper and his friends try to run away from the plague, they only end up locking in with them. Hawthorne’s obsession with Death, sin, the heart Goodman Brown seemed to be very much like Hawthorne himself. Both had ancestors who persecuted the witches of Salem. They were obsessed with, not their own sins, but the sins of others. Solitude was the focus of their lives. They had wives but were preoccupied with their obsession. Hawthorne, with all of his stories, seemed to be saying that on earth sin, evil, and imperfection where our only friends. To be without them would be true isolation and death would be the only way to break free. Hawthorne believed that the human heart was the only earthly thing that was pure. Georgiana’s birth mark was wrapped around her heart. The heart of Ethan Brand was the only thing that didn’t perish in the hellish fires of the lime kiln. He even said that without love the heart was the worst of all prisons. Biblical and Other Religious Stuff “Rappaccini’s Daughter” was set in a garden and can be compared to the biblical stories of Genesis I - III. These are the stories of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Using this comparison, Giovanni is Adam. Beatrice is Eve who taints Adam by trying to make him like herself. Rappaccini and Baglioni are trying to play God. Both are trying to control Giovanni and Beatrice. Rappaccini, the scientist, tries to achieve power by manipulating the plants in his garden. He breeds them as poisonous creatures. Baglioni, tries to change the poisonous plants into harmless creatures by concocting his potion. This reminds me of an episode of Star Trek called “The Way to Eden.” In this episode a group of hippie like characters were in search of Eden. They where convinced that it was a planet covered with a beautiful garden. They did find their garden but the plants turned out to be very highly acidic. It burned their bare feet and killed their leader who had taken a bite of the poisonous fruit. It was just like Beatrice who had thought she had found happiness with the fatal potion. Hawthorne also referred to Dante’s Inferno in “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” This story was the most unlike the rest and this is a very different belief than the Puritans of New England. He seemed to be saying a lot about religion in this story. Perhaps this was just a way to make a hell of the so called perfect garden of Eden that he created in this story. Even Hawthorne seems to be playing God with this story. As I have already said Hawthorne loved the Puritan. Well, at least he loved to write about them. He seemed to be discrediting their definitions of sin in all of his stories. This could be just some kind of psychological shunning of his ancestors which preside over the Salem with trials. Here Hawthorne becomes much like Hooper or even Hester Prin. He takes the sins of the past and tries to make amends by teaching others. He does this with his stories. He’s saying that we shouldn’t be so closed minded like the Puritans because it will only lead to the isolation of ourselves. The X - Files Looking for a way to add two or three paragraphs I will compare Hawthorne to the X - Files. Mulder becomes Hawthorne’s persecution and symbolism about religion and faith. Scully becomes Hawthorne’s criticism and lack of believing in the experimentation and explanations of science. “Young Goodman Brown” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” would make terrific X- Files episodes. If it had been Mulder who had taken a walk in the woods that night. He would have seen it as some kind of alien take over. The sinners would be aliens in disguise and every time that he saw one of those people anywhere he would be convinced that they were not of this world. He would be casting himself into isolation just as Brown did when he was convinced of the townspeople’s secret sins. Mulder is already in isolation anyway since even Scully is always debunking his theories about aliens and vampires ad the like. Let’s say that Scully was called in to do an autopsy of Beatrice. She would probably assume that she had been poisoned slowly throughout her entire life. Not creating an immunity but it being the cause of her death. A strictly scientific point of view while Mulder would be poking around in the bushes looking for aliens. The Salvation of Death In all of Hawthorne’s stories that I have looked at, it seems that death is the final salvation. Earth is full of sin, this sin cause characters to isolate themselves from one another, and then just when they think that they can have perfection on earth they die. Not, loosing their goal but taking it with them to the next life. Isolation - The Final Wrap Up Like Hawthorne himself, all of his characters were in some kind of seclusion. Either they were living alone in the mountains, wandering around by themselves, killing off their friends and family, or hiding behind a veil. Anyway they where all alone, in some way or another, whether it be physically or spiritually or both. The New England setting seemed to convey Hawthorne’s theme of sin and religion. Like some current authors are obsessed with the old West or maybe even the future, Hawthorne was obsessed with colonial New England. This was in fact the perfect setting for his isolated characters. As the witches where persecuted and isolated in the Puritan times. Hawthorne looked back to help teach us all a lesson about how obsession and religious beliefs can get in the way of truth. He also taught about how the plight of man to alter nature would only lead to destroy it. If Hawthorne was still alive today, he would probably be writing pamphlets on pollution, promoting pro-life, and organizing a gay right parade. He was a liberal man who couldn’t stand the thought of burning innocent people at the stake. He was very risqué with his writing for the time which he lived in but was very good at conveying his message. You would think that since he wrote about how isolation and wasting your life away, that he wouldn’t have spent twelve years lock in his attic, so to speak. But like Hooper and a few of his other characters he let his bad experiences help guide the rest of us to our earthly salvation.

The End © 1998 CJ Welter